Effort For Apples
by EnviousCasca
Summary: A short one-shot of Melu and Feng.


**I didn't want to get rid of the chapter even though it didn't really fit with the plot, so I just turned it into a one-shot. Enjoy. :D  
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**World of Warcraft belongs to Blizzard Entertainment. Melusina Sunveil, Tai, Feng and Yan-Yu all belong to me.**

**As always, feel free to review.  
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><p><strong>Chapter 12: Effort for Apples<strong>

"Sunny! Come on out to the kitchen, I've got a job for you!"

Melu's ears perked up at the sound of her unique nickname. It was by far one of the stranger pet names she ever heard before, but somehow also very catchy. When Tai told the little trio the elf's full name, they decided it was too long. Thus they rechristened her "Sunny." Tai and her mother joined in on the pet-name, sometimes calling her "Sunshine" as well. Now, the only one who still called her by her given name was Feng.

Before leaving the bedroom, Melu glanced in the mirror. Even after living away from him for so long, one of her grandfather's most important rules were still ingrained in her mind. _Before even leaving your room, make sure you are dressed to impress. Even if you have no plans for the day, dress like the important person that you are. _She never took his advice to the degree that Balderius always wished she would, but making sure that her clothing were both comfortable and cute had long since become a habit.

"Sunshiiiiiine! Don't make me come get you, silly girl," Yan-Yu called, her voice teasing. Melu darted from her room, using the sock on her feet to slide into the kitchen. Yan-Yu sent her a laughing smile as she motioned for the elf to come closer. She glanced around, Tai and Feng were nowhere to be seen and the the little ones were once again outside playing, Shing watching passerby's warily.

"Hello, Yan-Yu. Yan-Yu need Melu?"

"Today, you're going to make a pie!" the mother said mischievously, her eyes casting quick looks toward the window. The mage quirked her head to the side in obvious confusion.

"What pie?"

"What _is _pie," Yan-Yu corrected. "I'll show you. I'll make the first one, then you're going to make the next one. I bought plenty of apples, so don't worry about running out of supplies."

Melu's expression was clear. _I only caught half the words you just said._

The huntress sighed, shaking her head. "Alright, Sunny. Let's start."

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Melu hated pies. This was what she decided. They were messy, confusing and took too damn long. Not only that, but Yan-Yu had finished her pie with such lightning-speed, the mage still wasn't quite sure was she was supposed to do with her own and she was too embarrassed to ask. The blood elf lived by the strong conviction that food prepared by other people always tasted better than her own. Granted, this was her first time preparing food, so she had nothing to compare, but that didn't matter! She just _knew._

_ Mrs. Liredan should come back and finish this for me, _Melu thought to herself, though her hands continue their work butchering the poor apples. She yelped in pain as the knife suddenly slid from the apple's slippery skin and bit into her finger. She brought her hand to the sink, staring at the simple mechanism in panic. She learned quickly during her stay with the humans that they didn't rely on magic like blood elves did. In Silvermoon, a sink would turn on immediately, whatever temperature you desired, as soon as you put your hands beneath the faucet. However in Stormwind this was not the case and the mage realized with a sudden spike of frustration that she didn't know how to turn on a simple _sink. _She beat the faucet with her uninjured hand.

"Stupid!"

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Feng sighed as he crossed the length of park toward his mother's house. He had just swung by his small apartment in Old Town, when- suspiciously enough- he ran into Tai. She ran up to him with the widest cheshire grin on her face and told him that their mother and Melu were doing a project and needed his help. Before he could sarcastically beg her to be _more _vague with those instructions, she skipped off. For the past two weeks, Tai and Yan-Yu were acting less like adults and more like a pair of prepubescent girls. Giggling at him conspiratorially when they thought he wasn't looking. For whatever reason, they had also dragged the elf into whatever they were scheming, looking for whatever reasons they could to ditch Melu with him. It was beyond irritating.

Trudging up the small granite steps, the rogue lifted his hand to open the door when he spotted Melu from the window. She seemed to be hastily wrapping something as she stood at the kitchen sink. _What the...? _Feng glanced at the counter tops. It was a disaster zone. Flour caked every surface of the kitchen and apples that looked like the victims of a Forsaken's failed science experiment littered the room. Feng watched, mildly curious, as Melu turned to glared at her mutilated pie.

_"That's it," _she growled in thalassian, _"I quit, this is stupid!" _With a huff Melu shoved the all the ruined ingredients into the trash bin. She frowned in concentration, stretching her arms toward the table and muttered an incantation.

_She's not- _Before Feng could even finish the thought, a perfect little pie popped into existence on the dinner table. He shook his head. _She did. _Melu put her hands on her hips, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. Carefully handling the knife, she sliced off a piece of pie, checking the contents. Feng quirked an eyebrow at the scene before him. _She'd rather resort to cheating than put forth any kind of effort? What happened to the girl who tried in vain to escape _countless_ times? _

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Melu spun around at the sound of the door opening. She smiled warmly.

"Hello, Feng! Good walk? Melu make food, see?" She felt so giddy with her accomplishment, she thought she would burst. She couldn't wait for Feng to try it and tell her how good it was. The young man glanced down at the table then back at her.

"Mom's putting you to work again, huh? Alright, I guess I'll try it, since you worked so hard." Melu beamed, twirling around to get him a fork. From behind her, the rogue spoke again. "How much flour did you use?" Melu paused, her smile wavering.

"Yan-Yu count for Melu."

"Ah... what about apples? You did the apples at least, right? How many did you use?"

"Melu don't know..." She frowned. What was his deal? Why couldn't he just appreciate her hard work and tell her he liked the pie like any decent man? She handed him the fork. He sliced off a tiny piece and ate it silently, his expression never changing. Melu sat across from him, watching anxiously.

"Good, yes?" Melu asked eagerly. Feng gave her a level look.

"It could use more work."

Melu's face fell and her mind went blank. More work? What did he mean? She conjured that perfectly! The elf had eaten her own conjured meals plenty of times before, she knew for a fact that her replications were damn near perfect. Anything that was even slightly different from the original wasn't worth complaining about, so what was his problem?

She felt heat rush up to her face. Gripping her skirt so tightly her knuckles turned white and the cut on her finger sear with pain. The blood was already beginning to show through the poorly wrapped cloth. It was only when her vision began to blur that she realized she was going to cry and she leapt to her feet, making a clumsy dash for her room.

"Melu! Wait!"

_"Why? So you can insult me more? Maybe tell me I'm fat, like Grandfather always did. Or tell me I'm weak and I should better than I am, like Solarian? That's what you are. You're just like Solarian! You jerk!" _She knew yelling at him in thalassian was a very one-sided conversation. Yet somehow, it made her feel better, like it was an argument she knew she could win.

Dodging into the guest room, she turned quickly to try and slam the door in Feng's face, but the rogue was faster. He shoved the door open, accidently slamming it into Melu's injured hand. The elf cried out in pain, ignoring Feng for a moment as he stared at her with a shocked and confused expression. She stood there trembling, clutching her hand, willing the pain away with her mind.

"Oh, I see." Melu glanced up at Feng just as he scooped her up into his arms. The elf squeaked, her face red with embarrassment. Her young keeper crossed the hall swiftly before gently setting her down in the bathroom, closing the door behind him, ensuring her capture. He kept one hand on her waist as he stooped low, rummaging around in one of the drawers beneath the sink. Melu focused on getting her complexion to return to a state of normalcy and ignoring Feng's lingering hand.

Suddenly, she heard the rogue mutter, "Ah, here's the damn thing. Who moved it, anyway?" Standing straight, Feng turned to Melu, setting a bottle and a roll of bandages on the sink. With a quick, apologetic glance her direction Feng carefully unwrapped the cloth.

"Hey- what? S-stop!" Melu stuttered, her voice still choked up from her earlier outburst. Softly, she attempted to tug her hand away. With an irritated grunt, Feng once again swept her off her feet. Ignoring her yelp and the bottle of alcohol as it fell to the floor, he lifted her up and set her on the sink effectively pinning her there with his legs.

_"Nooo! You can't do this! I've never even had a boyfriend or my first kiss! You have to get Remiel's approval first! I'll never die in peace!" _Melu rambled, her voice rising in embarrassed panic as she hid her face in her hands. Feng blinked at her as he poured the alcohol on a hand towel.

"I've no idea what y' just said, but I'm pretty I don't wanna know," he said slowly. He removed the messy bandage completely, frowning at the blood. Melu watched as her wound was carefully washed and disinfected. Feng didn't appear to be as bothered by their close proximity as she was, but then, maybe she was just over-thinking it.

_Yeah, that's it, I'm reading into it too much, _with that thought, she gave a small sigh of relief, ignoring Feng's quizzical glance. A part of her was still angry at him for what he said earlier and no matter how much of a pushover that may have been, she didn't plan on letting him off the hook easily this time!

"How'd you slice your finger anyway?" he asked abruptly, catching the elf off guard. Melu frowned, looking at the wall over his shoulder.

"Cutting apples."

There was a long silence, tense silence. Melu's eyes flickered back to Feng to see him staring straight at her. The expression on his face was so serious she almost felt she had done something wrong, but she had no idea what.

"Do you know why I told you your pie needed work?"

Melu scowled. "Because Feng hate Melu?" she offered, her voice dripping in bitterness, though she tried in vain to pass it off as a light sarcastic tone. The rogue sighed heavily and shook his head.

"You didn't make that pie." At her confused look, he continued. "You _conjured _that pie, you didn't bake it form scratch, which was what Mom was trying to teach you in the first place. You didn't put any effort into it." Feng stepped back, giving her room to step down from the sink. "That's why I said what I said."

Melu didn't move from her spot, instead she stared at her lap in shame. So he had seen her cheat. She knew casting spells was the last thing Yan-Yu wanted, but she had been so tired and frustrated that anything would have been good enough at that point. Honestly, at the time she had just been satisfied that her pie had _visual _appeal, she didn't even think about how it would taste until Feng tried it.

Feng reached up, ruffling her hair. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like you only had that one shot to make the pie. Keep trying until you're happy with it. And don't be afraid to ask for help."

"R-right, sorry," she mumbled.

"And stop apologizing. This isn't anything worth getting upset over. Like I said, this isn't your last chance to make an apple pie. Take your time."

Melu slid gently from her seat on the sink. Feng took another step back, giving her more space in the suddenly claustrophobic room. Looking up from her newly bandaged finger, she smiled shyly at the rogue.

"Thanks. Melu try harder next time." Feng's expression shifted from mild surprise to an embarrassed scowl.

"Uh, yeah sure. Whatever." Quickly he turned and opened the door. "Mom's gonna be back soon, so we should at least finish cleaning the kitchen... What the hell are you smiling about so much?"

The little twitch in Melu's lips had grown to a fully bloomed smile. She laughed, "Don't know!"


End file.
